More seven-seat Honda CR-Vs
Surprisingly popular three-row option could be expandedTaken by surprise by demand for the seven-seat version of its new CR-V, Honda Australia is likely to make third-row seating more widely available through the range.
Currently, only the top-specification front-wheel drive VTi-L is offered with third-row seating, but other front-drive versions of its new mid-size SUV could also get the feature soon.
Three-row seating is understood to be off the radar for the all-wheel drive versions of CR-V because of technical issues fitting it in over the rear diff and so on.
“There is more of an opportunity with the seven-seater -- it has taken us a little bit by surprise how strong it has gone,” confirmed Honda Australia director Stephen Collins.
“The seven-seater we estimated would be around 15 per cent of the mix and I think it is more than that, more like early 20s, so it’s been a bit more popular than what we thought.
“We only brought it in in the top-spec two-wheel drive because we thought that was the sweet-spot for it, but we have had some feedback from dealers that maybe we should expand the seven-seater so we are looking at that.
“I think the opportunity is in the lower grade two-wheel drive, but we are investigating now.”
There are three front-wheel drive CR-V grades; the $30,690 VTi, $33,290 VTi-S and $38,990 VTi-L. There is also the $35,490 all-wheel drive VTi-S and the exclusively all-wheel drive $44,290 VTi-LX.
Collins said CR-V sales were going “gangbusters” since the fifth-generation’s launch in July.
It was the sixth best-selling medium SUV in September according to VFACTS, with 1191 registrations. That compares to the same month in 2016 when 738 examples of its predecessor were sold and it ranked ninth in class.
Year-to-date sales are fractionally ahead of 2016, but that’s lifted from 19.1 per cent down over just two months as the new model has arrived in dealerships.
“CR-V is achieving higher sales than what we planned for so stock is pretty tight,” Collins said. “The mix is pretty much what we expected, which is more skewed to two-wheel drive.
“We are happy with it and the dealers are happy with it.”
Overall, Honda sales are up 12.6 per cent for the year, primarily driven by strong Civic hatch sales and more recently, the new CR-V.
Meanwhile, Collins ruled out any chance of the CR-V hybrid coming to Australia.
Launched at the Frankfurt motor show and primarily targeting the European market, the hybrid is powered by a 2.0-litre petrol engine and an electric motor/generator and drives through a single gear rather than a conventional gearbox.
“We currently have no plan for CR-V hybrid,” confirmed Collins. “It could happen in the future but we currently have no plan for it.”
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